In general, a refrigerator includes a freezing chamber for preserving freezing food items, a refrigerating chamber for keeping refrigerating food items, and a refrigerating cycle for supplying cooling air to the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber. A vegetable room is provided at a lower side of the refrigerating chamber to generally keep fruits, vegetables or functional storage items.
FIG. 1 is a vertical-sectional view showing one example of a refrigerator in accordance with a conventional art.
The conventional refrigerator includes: a main body 100 having a receptacle space therein, a freezing chamber 103 disposed at an upper portion of the main body 100 and keeping freezing items, a refrigerating chamber 109 disposed at a lower portion of the main body 100 by being partitioned from the freezing chamber 103 by a wall 105 and having a plurality of shelves 107 for receiving refrigerating food items, a freezing chamber door 111 and a refrigerating chamber door 112 respectively mounted to be opened and closed forwardly of the freezing chamber 103 and the refrigerating chamber 109; a cooing air supply unit installed at a rear side of the refrigerating chamber 103 and supplying air cooled while passing a refrigerating cycle to the freezing chamber 103 and the refrigerating chamber 109; and a vegetable room provided at a lower side of the refrigerating chamber 109 and keeping fruits, vegetables or functional storage items.
The refrigerating cycle includes a compressor 104 for changing a low temperature and low pressure gaseous refrigerant to a high temperature and high pressure gaseous refrigerant; a condenser (not shown) for condensing the gaseous refrigerant which has been compressed in the compressor 104 to a liquid state and externally discharging heat; an expander (not shown) formed as a capillary tube for changing the refrigerant in the liquid state as changed in the condenser to a low temperature and low pressure saturated liquid state; and an evaporator 106 for evaporating the refrigerant in the saturated liquid state as changed in the expander in the low temperature gas state to absorb external heat.
The cooling air supply unit includes a blow fan 115 mounted at a surface of a rear wall of the freezing chamber 103 and forcibly ventilating air cooled while passing the evaporator 106; a panel 114 disposed at a front side of the blow fan 115 and having a plurality of cooling air discharge holes 112 for supplying cooling air into the freezing chamber 103; a cooling air supply passage 117 formed penetrating the wall 105 to introduce the cooling air ventilated from the blow fan 115 to the refrigerating chamber 109; a cooling air discharge duct 118 mounted at a rear side of the refrigerating chamber 109 and communicating with the cooling air supply passage 117 to guide the cooling air supplied to the cooling air supply passage 117 into the refrigerating chamber 109; and a cooling air inlet passage 116 formed penetrating the wall 105 to allow the cooling operation-completed air after having been circulated in the refrigerating chamber 109 to be re-introduced into the evaporator 106 and cooled.
The refrigerant discharge duct 118 includes a plurality of cooling air discharge holes 119 through which cooling air is discharged into the refrigerating chamber 109.
As shown in FIG. 2, the vegetable room is configured by the lowermost shelf of the plurality of shelves 107 and a vegetable box 108 disposed at the lower side of the lowermost shelf and opened upwardly with a receptacle space with a certain volume therein.
As the vegetable box 108 is slid forwardly and backwardly at the lower side of the shelf 107, a storage stuff is received/taken away, and a space (h) is maintained between the shelf 107 and the vegetable box 108.
The operation of the conventional refrigerator will now be described.
First, when the refrigerating cycle is driven and the blow fan 115 is rotated, air is cooled while passing the refrigerating cycle and discharged to the cooling air discharge hole 112 of the panel 114 and to the cooling air supply passage 117 by the blast pressure of the blow fan 115.
The cooling air being discharged into the cooling air-discharge hole 112 circulates in the freezing chamber 103 to perform a cooling operation on the freezing food items stored in the freezing chamber 103.
The cooling air supplied to the cooling air supply passage 117 is introduced into the cooling air discharge duct 118 and then discharged into the refrigerating chamber 109 through the cooling air discharge hole 119 formed at the cooling air discharge duct 118.
The cooling air, which has been discharged into the refrigerating chamber 109, performs a cooling operation on the refrigerating food items received in the shelves 107 of the refrigerating chamber 109 and in the vegetable box 108 while circulating in the refrigerating chamber 109.
At this time, as the cooling air directly contacts with the refrigerating food items received on the shelves 107 and in the vegetable box 108, the cooling air takes the moisture from the refrigerating food items, containing more moisture, and as the cooling air is re-introduced into the refrigerating cycle through the cooling air inlet passage 116 formed at the wall 105, it is cooled again. The moisture moved along with the cooling air is congealed at the surface of the evaporator 106, is defrost in a frost-removing operation for the evaporator 106 and discharged outwardly.
Therefore, in a state that the refrigerating chamber door 113 is closed, the humidity inside the refrigerating chamber 109 is gradually lowered down due to the circulation of cooling air.
However, the conventional refrigerator has the following problems.
That is, first, since the vegetable box 108 is opened upwardly, cooling air supplied into the refrigerating chamber 109 is introduced into the space between the vegetable box 108 and the shelf 107 to directly contact with the food items in the vegetable box 108. Accordingly, for food items requiring a suitable moisture in the vegetable box 108, because their moisture would be taken away by the cooling air, freshness of the food items is degraded and storage duration is shortened.
In addition, since the vegetable box is opened upwardly, if the refrigerating chamber door is opened and closed, external air of the refrigerator can be possibly introduced into the vegetable box.
Therefore, if an environment outside the refrigerator is relatively humid, the outside moisture would be introduced into the vegetable box whenever the refrigerating chamber door is opened and closed, damping the dried food items in the vegetable box which need to be maintained dried.
Meanwhile, if the environment outside the refrigerator is relatively dry, the outside dried air would be introduced into the vegetable box whenever the refrigerating door is opened and closed, drying the food items such as fruits or vegetables in the vegetable box which need to be maintained with moisture. Then, the storage duration of the food items is shortened and freshness of the food items is degraded.